Daily news roundups

“Got to keep going” — Playoff scenarios, who will captain, more news

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

At the Union website, Kevin Kinkead lays out the three scenarios by which the Union can still qualify for the playoffs if they defeat Sporting Kansas City at PPL Park on Saturday. Should the Union win, they will not know their fate until after the results of the Houston and New England games on Sunday.

What do the Union need to do to win in Saturday? Conor Casey said, “Just got to keep going. Our effort is good, we can’t blame it on that since it’s been there all year. We just got to keep going out and leading on the field and being a little bit better for the small things.”

In the latest Inside Doop, three thoughts standout in Dave Zeitlin’s takeaways from Saturday’s loss in Montreal:

  • How could Justin Mapp have contributed to the Union if he had not been left unprotected in the 2011 Expansion draft? Zeitlin writes, “Looking back at that draft, it must also be frustrating that they left Mapp exposed while protecting a player –- Faryd Mondragon –- that would decide to sign in a different league a couple of months later.”
  • Zeitlin notes that Kleberson has had a hand in every Union goal scored in October, “which, more than, anything else, makes it even more baffling why Hackworth refused to play him for most of the season.”
  • Who will replace the suspended Brian Carroll for Saturday’s must-win game? (Even though it will be Sheanon Williams’ 100th Union game, it’s gotta be Jeff Parke, right?)

Brotherly Game reviews potential candidates to wear the captain’s armband in Carroll’s absence.

Fabinho gets a shout out in this post at MLSsoccer.com looking at how summer signings in MLS have contributed (or not) to their teams.

Power rankings? If we must. SI has the Union at No. 12.. Soccer America and ESPN have them at No. 13 while ProSoccerTalk has them at No. 14. In the full league table, the Union sit at No. 13.

Don’t forget, donated coats will be collected at PPL Park’s Toyota Plaza for the Coats for Chester program at Saturday’s game.

Local

Penn’s Duke Lacroix has been named Ivy League and Philly Soccer Six Player of the Week.

Villanova goalkeeper Andrew Weakly has been named Big East Goalkeeper of the Week and Philly Soccer Six Defender of the Week.

Drexel goalkeeper Tyler Afflerbach has been named Philly Soccer Six Rookie of the Week. Midfielder Michele Patala was named Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week.

The Penn women’s team is on the road against NJIT today.

In Monday’s Philadelphia Catholic League girls’ soccer quarterfinal, Archbishop Wood defeated Conwell-Egan, 3-0.

MLS

At ProSoccerTalk, Steve Davis lays out why teams want to avoid the fourth and fifth playoff spots.

Soccer America takes a look at at this week’s CONCACAF Champions League games involving MLS teams. Kansas City hosts Honduran club CD Olimpia on Wednesday, ahead of their visit to PPL Park on Saturday, which is a must-win for them if they are to  keep their Supporters Shield hopes alive. Head coach Peter Vermes doesn’t seem terribly concerned about having to play two important games so close to one another.”I think it’s great because [back-to-back important games] mimics what the playoffs could be like. It keeps us in form because we get a chance to turn around and play again right away. We’re also coming off our [international] break here. We need games going into the final push of the season.”

Vermes added, “We’ve got to be ready for both of them but this game on Wednesday is the one we’ve got to be focused on right now. The other one, the rest of it, we just can’t think about that yet.”

While Kansas City at least knows they are in the playoffs, Houston will try not to be distracted during their Champions League game in Panama against Arabe Unido on Thursday knowing that, after their home loss to New York over the weekend, they must defeat DC United away on Sunday if their playoff chances are to stay alive.

The league has released the schedule for its end-of-the-season awards.

League president Mark Abbott met with Orlando County commissioners on Monday to assure them that if they approve $20 million in stadium funding for Orlando City SC, he would work “very quickly” to award the club a MLS franchise. A vote on the funding will take place around 2 pm today.

Another story on Abbott’s visit says that Miami, Atlanta, San Antonio, and Minneapolis are also under consideration for a new franchise.

Bradenton’s IMG Academy will be the preseason home of the Fire, the Crew, the Red Bulls, the Revolution and DC United in 2014. The Bradenton Herald reports efforts are underway to bring in more MLS teams as well as international clubs and adds, “As part of the partnership, IMG will not charge MLS and the international teams to use its facilities.”

US

US Soccer announced on Tuesday that over 10,000 tickets have been sold for the USWNT friendly against Brazil on Nov. 10 in Orlando

Elsewhere

UEFA Champions League play returns today. Check out the latest Footy on the Telly post for listings of the games on TV and online.

5 Comments

  1. Here’s what I’m maddest at Coach Hackworth about. The Montreal game last week turned when they brought in their rookie SuperDraft pick, and their game-winning goal was scored by a Home-Grown Player. Where are our Home Grown Players? Rotting on the bench, either here or in Germany. Where are our SuperDraft picks? I think Fernandes played Saturday, but I’m not sure. I thought the whole deal with Hackworth was that he was a developer of young players. Why haven’t we seen that?

  2. “Steve Davis lays out why teams want to avoid the fourth and fifth playoff spots.” – At least this explains why the Union have been doing so poorly over the last couple of months. They’ve been trying to avoid those last two playoff spots.

    • OneManWolfpack says:

      HAHA! Take that show on the road sir!!

    • LOL. and that’s why they did not play Kleberson most of the season. With these kind of ‘tricks’ we have become the laughing stock of the league (next to Seattle).
      .
      Hope that the players leave everything they have for 90 minutes on the field on Saturday. San Jose gave it their all on Sunday but only for the last 10 minutes, which was not enough and they lost out on the play-offs… Still can’t believe that the Union only made things happen for 45min in Montreal…

  3. The Union management truly screwed things up for this team. First off, I was always a supporter of Justin Mapp when he was with the Union, quite frankly he was one of the best players on the team. I was shocked when he was unprotected in the 2011 expansion draft. Management really doesn’t see great talent when its in front of them. Finally! Carroll isn’t playing for once! He shouldn’t even be on the team in my opinion. I’ve wanted him off the team from the beginning of the season, and now everyone is saying “he isn’t a good captain and needs to sit”, hate to say I told you so…

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